Durango – A San Juan Basin Health Department worker who teaches adults how to work with troubled teens is scheduled for arraignment Friday in La Plata County Court on a charge of sexual assault on a child.
Kenneth Charles Puhler, 50, of Durango, who has served as a foster parent to dozens of children in the past decade, was arrested June 27. The arrest affidavit was sealed. La Plata County sheriff’s investigator Larry Foukas said Wednesday that he could not release further details.
Puhler served as Dolores County sheriff from 1986 to 1990. He has worked with the San Juan Basin Health Department since the early 1990s as a “prevention specialist” and guest speaker for workshops in teen substance abuse, the dangerous “choking game,” suicide prevention and teen sexuality.
Puhler recently conducted a workshop for the Adoption Alliance in Denver and had been invited back, alliance staff member Cindi New kirk-Noah said.
Puhler was being held on $1 million bail.
